The sacking of Virat Kohli upset a lot of Indian cricket fans who wanted the batsman to continue leading the side. While some are backing the decision by BCCI, others are completely in shock as to what led the selection committee to take such a radical step. Amongst the people who are not surprised by the decision is the former cricketer and cricket analyst Aakash Chopra. Aakash Chopra isn’t surprised with Kohli’s sacking as the ODI skipper.
A section of cricket fans and viewers are of the opinion that after Kohli left T20 captaincy, Kohli’s removal as the ODI captain was inevitable. The logic behind the removal of Kohli is quite simple. BCCI made a distinction between white-ball cricket and red-ball cricket and therefore Aakash Chopra isn’t surprised with the fact that Kohli is no more the Indian captain in the ODI format.
Talking on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “We had already discussed earlier that it was bound to happen. The day Virat Kohli quit T20I captaincy, it was a foregone conclusion that he would lose his One Day captaincy also very soon.” A section of fans is supporting this theory and even Sourav Ganguly made it clear that they wanted to have separate captains in white-ball and red-ball cricket.
Aakash Chopra isn’t surprised with Virat Kohli’s sacking
The main reason behind Kohli’s sacking is not his record in the ICC tournaments, but purely a distinction between the longer format and the shorter formats of the game. This is understandable as far as the removal of Kohli is concerned and this is the reason why Aakash Chopra isn’t surprised. Though the BCCI is receiving a lot of backlash after the decision, some fans are able to understand the logic behind it.
“World over it has never happened that the Test captain is an ODI captain and is not a T20 captain. Or as Test captain and T20 captain but not in One Day. Distinction is always about white ball cricket and red ball cricket and that distinction has been settled,” said Aakash Chopra talking on his YouTube channel.
Rohit will play his first series as the full-time captain in ODIs on the South Africa tour which is commencing on 26th December with the first Test in Centurion. Kohli will continue leading the Test side as usual. Team India will play 3 Tests and 3 ODIs on the South Africa tour.